"Books - David Eddings - Rivan Codex, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

Oedipus did?) It occurred to me that archetypal myth might not be
very useful in the evaluation of a story, but might it not work in its
creation? I tried it, and it works. I planted more mythic fishhooks in
the first couple of books of the Belgariad than you'll find in any
sporting goods store. I've said (too many times, probably) that if you
read the first hundred pages of the Belgariad, I gotcha!! You won't be
able to put it down. The use of archetypal myth in the creation of
fiction is the literary equivalent of peddling dope.
The preliminaries to the Belgariad are actually out of sequence
here. The Personal History of Belgarath the Sorcerer was written after the
rest of the studies while I was trying to get a better grip on the old
boy. You might want to compare that very early character sketch
with the opening chapters of the more recent Belgarath the Sorcerer.
Did you notice the similarities? I thought I noticed you noticing.
When I first tackled these studies, I began with The Holy Books,
and the most important of these is The Book of Alorn. When you get
right down to it, that one contains the germ of the whole story. After
that, I added The Book of Torak. Fair is fair, after all, and 'equal time'
sounds sort of fair, I guess. The Testament of the Snake People was an
exercise in showing off. (A poem in the shape of a snake? Gee!) The
Hymn to Chaldan was supposed to help explain the Arends. A war
god isn't all that unusual.
The Marags are extinct, but that 'equal time' regulation was still
in place, so I took a swing at the grief-stricken God Mara. I had fun
with The Proverbs of Nedra - a sort of theological justification for pure
greed. Maybe I'll make a deal with the New York Stock Exchange,
and they can engrave those proverbs on the wall.

The Sermon of Aldur was a false start, since it speaks glowingly of
'Unmaking Things', which UL prohibited in the next section. That
section, The Book of Ulgo, was rather obviously based on The Book of
Job. Note that I'll even steal from the Bible. Gorim came off rather
well, I thought. Incidentally, 'Ul! was a typographical error the first
time it appeared. I liked the way it looked on paper, so I kept it.
(Would you prefer to have me claim 'Divine Inspiration?')
I'm going to disillusion some enthusiasts here, I'm afraid. Notice
that the Mrin Codex and the Darine Codex aren't included here.
They don't appear because they don't exist. They're a literary device
and nothing more. (I once jokingly told Lester that I'd be ~g to
write the Mrin Codex if he'd agree to publish it.on a scroll, but he
declined.) I used the 'Mrin' as a form of exposition. Those periodic
breakthroughs when Belkira and Beltira - or whoever else is handy
- finally crack the code are the things that set off a new course of
action. I catch hints of a religious yearning when people start
pleading for copies of the 'Mrin'. Sorry gang, I'm not in the business of
creating new religions. This is 'story', not 'revelation'. I'm a
storyteller, not a Prophet of God. OK?
Once The Holy Books were out of the way, I was ready to tackle the
Histories, and that's where all the 'ologies' started showing up
along with a chronology. When you've got a story that lasts for